Israeli Forces Attack Anti-Settlement Protesters, Injure Scores of Palestinians in West Bank
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli regime forces dispersed anti-settlement protests in the occupied West Bank on Friday, injuring scores of Palestinians.
The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service said 10 Palestinians were hit with rubber bullets, while 44 others suffered breathing difficulties due to inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during clashes in Beita, south of Nablus, on Friday.
According to the report, five other Palestinians suffered different injuries during the clashes.
Since May, Beita has seen intensified clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians protesting against a settlement outpost that has been established on Sobeih Mountain by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces.
To the east of Nablus, Israeli forces used rubber bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs against Palestinian protesters who took to the streets of the village of Beit Dajan on Friday to condemn Israel’s settlement expansion policy and the crimes committed by the Tel Aviv regime against the Palestinians.
During the clashes, 12 demonstrators were hit with rubber bullets, while 20 others suffered breathing difficulties due to the tear gas.
Israeli forces also attacked a weekly anti-settlement protest in Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya City, on Friday leaving tens of Palestinians injured.
The demonstrators were denouncing Israel’s policy of deliberate medical negligence against Palestinian prisoners.
Also on Friday, clashes erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters at the northern entrance to al-Bireh City.
The Israeli forces used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters, who marched toward the vicinity of Bet El settlement, leaving a journalist and a number of Palestinians injured. The protest was staged in support of Nasser Abu Hamid, a cancer patient held in Israeli jails whose health has deteriorated.
In the city of al-Khalil (Hebron), two Palestinians were hit with rubber bullets, while tens of others suffered breathing difficulties during skirmishes with Israeli forces in Bab al-Zawya district on Friday.
A number of Palestinians also suffered breathing difficulties due to inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during clashes in Araqah Village, west of Jenin.
Local sources told WAFA news agency that the clashes took place after the Israeli forces stormed the village.
Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — during the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza. More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the settlement activities in several resolutions.
On Thursday, reports said that an Israeli local committee approved plans to build more than 3,500 new illegal settler units in the occupied East al-Quds.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry decried the move on Friday. Haitham Abu al-Foul, a spokesman for the ministry, stressed that the Israeli action was “a flagrant violation of international law.” He emphasized that Israel’s settlement policy was “illegitimate, illegal, rejected and condemned.”